commemorate today the 16th anniversary of our sister city of cord signed in san francisco in 1976. during this period, we have twice received official visits of the mayor of paris and paris has received three different mayors of san francisco. and each visit has led to projects and agreements between our two cities that have been beneficial and advantageous to each.

there is even one exchange in the field of fashion wean the academy of art and university and the most famous fashion schools in paris that begin at the beginning of our relationship and continue stronger than ever today. gladys pamer, the director of the department of fashion, gladys pamer, our sister city committee member is here today, we have worked closely in the area of public transit, thank

tos you, mr. mayor, the urban furniture that you showed us in paris now exists throughout san francisco, whether it be the bus stops, public toilets or the french kiosks used to distribute newspapers or other products. thanks to our relationship, we saw for the first time a successful bike share program and i still have my cart

delebre that you gave each of us on our visit to paris. [laughter]. >> and i remember fondly sort of, my first [inaudible] that day in suit and tie with mayor newsom in pouring rain in paris in front of city hall. like you in san francisco, reduction of pollutants and greenhouse gases is a priority.

you've seen how bicycle lanes throughout san francisco, even on our famous hills and after too long a delay, we ant pate launching our bike share program in 2013. our two cities have been in the forefront.in the fields of high-tech and digital media. digital sister cities. on your last visit in 2006 to commemorate the 10th anniversary of our partnership, we signed an accord being digital sister cities.

this accord has facilitated numerous parisian company ins establishing companies in san francisco such as parisoma which we will visit tomorrow. and we see companies based in san francisco that create branches in paris such as soef fee nova whose ceo, a member of the city sister committee is with us today.

there are many other examples of successful and flourishing business and commercial relations between our two cities, an atmosphere made part in possible due to the close working relationship between our two close municipalities. finally, as each of the mayors before me, i must comment on the world of art and culture of which san francisco and paris are two world capitals. our cultural exchanges are often, live the highest quality. many san francisco cultural institutions of every size perform frequently in paris.

san francisco's symphony presents every year in paris and the new president of their board of directors is here today, so also deshanty clear, a smaller men's choral group, a member of our committee is here today as well. and parisian artists are often in san francisco in the region and they're always warmly

welcomed. at this very moment as the mayor said earl ye, we are pleased to welcome to the bay area e man yell, director of st vil de la paris who will be presenting tomorrow the and the next niekt the masterpiece of the absurd rhinoceros. the ties between our two cities are strong, now with this new agreement, we assure they will continue and remain strong and beneficial for the great cities

of paris and san francisco. [applause]. >> do you think he interpreted himself well? so, you can see why he is our chairman, now the moment has come, mayors, to sign the memorandum of understanding. yes, sign it.

[applause]. (next event). >> thank you, everyone, for coming. i welcome to the opening of scoots san francisco network. [applause]. >> thanks. today, we are opening our beta program to the san francisco public and with that, we are opening the world's first network of shared electric scooters. [applause].

>> there we go, we're back, okay, so before i tell you about our s*frs for san francisco, i want to introduce someone who has already made san francisco an even better place to live, mayor ed lee. there are two things about the mayor's work and his administration that are particularly important to scoot, the first is that mayor lee is working hard to make this city an even better place to start and grow a new business, and second, he's been a toothless support of electric vehicles to improve san francisco's environment and the global environment as a whole so please welcome mayor ed lee. >> michael, matt, congratulations to scoot, yes. scoot and san francisco, well, let me first of all put this in some little perspective that i know, i know that we just announced last week, eb week in

san francisco to the delight of so many people who want to just have modes of transportation, multiple modes of transportation in a city that are also environmentally friendly and to contribute that reducing our fossil fuels, we are in san francisco world citizens after all and i know it's exciting for ed risken, our mta manager, he and i were excited to talk about different modes of transportation as we create all these exciting events to come to san francisco. i know it's exciting for board president david chiu, we tried to put pods for car sharing in neighborhoods on public streets and began in russian hill on his district, he's a vibrant, vibrant avid supporter of car sharing as i have been, i know

ed riskens, well at the hub, knowing that that's an incubator for great ideas came the idea of scooter san francisco and the scooter network, and it's the latest contribution to an ongoing conversation that board president chiu are having in this society, it really is when you come to automobile and or multiple modes of transportation sharing, scooter sharing is the latest contribution for people having access in our economy rather than just offered ownership and to me, that's really what wha* the shared economy is about and this great incubating idea of scooter sharing is wonderfulfinger these are all

electric, you can power this up on 18 cents worth of power as compared to what gasoline prices are. it takes, if you want to go around the city at 30 miles an hour, it will be less than half of the power of a toaster. it's equivalent to 850 miles a gallon to be on one of these electric scooters. i think it's safe, obviously we're going train people in the right way to abide but all the traffic regulations that we have, but as i sit in my car on days where i have to wait and 7, watch these scooters go by, it's kind of like where am i and what am i doing and can i contribute even more, so it's exciting to see this happen in san francisco, to see its launch, it's exciting that it's an idea that incubated out of the hub, it's exciting to not only see that it's fun for

people to get around, to be more efficient and to kind of stralgts the lanes, but it's exciting to know it contributes so much of the goals of this city, the goals that i know our department environment is leading the effort and our city is leading the effort, the board of supervisors working with my office to show case every opportunity we can to have alternative modes, and getting off of oil, it's going to be explained to you in simple terms how you get on these things but i'm so excited already, matt, or mike, that i am presenting to you my personal membership to the scooter network. alright. [applause]. >> there you go, thank you very much for starting here. >> thank you, mayor lee, this is a huge vote of confidence, we're happy to have your

support. i would also like to introduce another leader of our city who is a fellow two-wheel rider, board president david chiu is a dedicated bike commuter, he knows how to share the streets of san francisco with different modes of transportation, he's a tireless advocate for improving the transportation option sos we're happy, david to have you here supporting us in the opening of our public beta. >> good morning, is everyone ready to scoot? alright, thank you, michael, i am really excited to be part of this announcement for three reasons, first of all, san francisco, we need to be the leader in how we fight congestion, at this moment, we are the number 2 city in the country when it comes to congestion beside l.a., we have some serious issues we need to tackle and the neighborhoods we live in are the densest

neighborhoods in the east coast, in the district, i have the densest neighborhoods in the city where one out of three residents do not own a car and as someone who doesn't own a car, two of my favorite modes of transit are car sharing and my bicycle, car sharing because it's convenient not to own a car and my bicycle because it's easy to park, scoot allows you to pick up a bike when you need it but leave it and park it in ways that are easy and i want to thank michael and his team at scoot for innovating this, i'm excited about this for a second reason, we are the city of innovations and where great ideas start and continue, and as someone who ran a tech company, i'm excited that we have the best entrepreneurs, thinking about how the take a great idea and sell it to the rest of the world, the third

reason i'm excited has to do something, and i'm going to call out to the chinese press that are here, this is an idea that came from michael's experience in china, he saw on the streets of cities he visited scooters everywhere, i can tell you as a kid of immigrants, every time i visit taiwan, i don't get into the back of a car, i get on to a scooter, this is house people travel in densely populated cities, this is to bring a practice in parts of the world that even more dense than what we have here in san francisco and as american cities grow and become more populated, we're in that forefront to do it in a way that's safe, easy and economical and ensure that we are continuing to innovate our 21st century city, thank you for being here, i look forward the scooting with you on the roads. >> thank you, supervisor chiu,

the transportation authority makes all modes of transportation possible in san francisco, and sfmta garage is one of our corner stone location partners for the launch of our public data, we're very happy to have director of the sfmta ed risken here to say a couple of words at our launch. er >> thank you and good morning, as the city's transportation director, i have the privilege of managing the mta which is the agency in san francisco responsible for implementing the city's transit first policy. in order to implement that policy, there's two key things we need, we need strong leadership and innovation and what we're seeing today is the manifestation of just that in san francisco. what we need to do as the government and the transportation agency is make sure there are good choices available to people in terms of how they get around san francisco. we want people to feel like

they don't need to get in their car, they don't want to get in their car, maybe like supervisor chiu and i, they don't own a car because there are other good options for them to get around san francisco and there are ways they can get around that aren't going to clog our streets with traffic or fill our air with pollution, and i think scoot represents just one of those options and we're very happy to welcome them to san francisco, we're happy to do our small part in facilitating their launch here, i want to thank our director of off street parking manages all the mta parking garages and lots, we want to be through the management of those lots supportive of better ways to move around san francisco, cleaner ways to move around san francisco, so congratulations on your public launch, i look forward to seeing these red vehicles scooting around our streets safely and efficiently. thanks.

[applause]. >> thank you, director. scoot isn't just a better way to get around the city, when we started scoot, we believed that giving people an alternative to driving could have huge benefits for the local and global environment, we're dieted that mel knee muter, the director of the san francisco department of the environment is here with us in our opening of public beta in san francisco. >> good morning, everyone, it is an honor to be here for scoot's public announcement. this really does have great promise for helping to reduce carbon emissions in the city and county of san francisco. as some of you may know, about 40% of our carbon emissions in the city come from cars and trucks so we need to find alternatives for getting people out of their fossil fuel powered cars, this is going to be a great option for residences and businesses in san francisco to find an al --

an tern t*if, we're rolling out the electric vehicle infrastructure for cars so this is another electric vehicle option that we're happy to support. we also implement the commuter benefits program and help employers provide options to their employees for getting out of their cars, we're happy to add scoot and electric plug in scooters for people to community in the city and county of san francisco, so i'm here to be in support, we look forward to expanding the options for individuals and residents and businesses in the city to help protect the environment. thank you very much. [applause]. >> thank you, director nut nut t*er, we are so lucky to be launching scoot in san francisco. this city has everything that we could hope for, san franciscans are the early adopters, they care about

living healthier lifestyles and making the planet safer, and in our increasingly accelerated economy where every minute counts, they don't want to be waiting around for someone to pick them up and circling for parking, they want an option that's faster and more affordable and more convenient and graenbacker greener and as we can see, our city's leadership feels the same way. we are today opening the world's first network of shared electric scooters that you can activate with your smart phone and your phone, it's not just a key to the scooters, it's really a key to the city, it brings everything in the city closer to you, it opens up new neighborhoods that you may not have gone to before and it makes the places you get to every day more fun to get to. for those of us who ride, life

before scoot is sort of like life before mobile phones, once you have a short-cut to anywhere in the city in your pocket, you don't really want to go back, so we give you scoot, the world's first network of shared electric scooters and the perfect mode of transportation for the city that leads the world in what's coming next. thank you. [applause]. >> alright.